Forget Hermann; ND wants a title

November 14, 2006|MARK BRADFORD Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- The Notre Dame mens' soccer team, for the second time in its history, has two of the 15 semifinalists for the Hermann Trophy, given to the best collegiate player in the nation. Well, that's nice. At least that's the attitude that junior forward Loe Lapira, senior forward Greg Dalby, and head coach Bobby Clark all have about the individual award. For them, it's all about the team, and this team has some work to do. The 12th-seeded Irish (13-5-2), open in the NCAA tournament Wednesday night against fifth seed Illinois-Chicago (13-2-5) at 7:30 p.m. at Alumni Field. The small school name doesn't fool Clark, who made the trip to scout them against Western Illinois last weekend and came back impressed. "They are talented," said Clark. "In fact, they defeated St. Louis at St. Louis and we were only able to tie St. Louis. Then they went out and defeated UC Santa Barbara (also in the tournament), so we know we are going to have our hands full." The Irish have not played since Oct. 28, when they lost a second-round Big East tournament game in overtime to Rutgers. "Quite honestly, you can either be sharp or dull after a layoff like that," Clark said. "We have done some things in practice to keep us sharp but we will have to see what happens Wednesday night." Lapira and Dalby, though happy with their selection for the honor, were more concerned with their quest to win the national championship. Asked what his team had to do to win the national championship, Lapira replied, "Win five games." It is that straightforward thinking that led the junior from Louisiana to score a Division I-leading 20 goals in 20 games and add five assists to co-lead in points per game with 2.25. "Obviously, it is an honor to be selected but it is even bigger because two people from our team are considered among the top 15 in the nation," said Lapira. "We have been trying to stay sharp the last two weeks and have been working on our set pieces, which caused us some problems at both ends of the field during the year. We watched some film today but really we want to come out and play our game. Our goal is to win the national championship." "I haven't really thought about the Hermann award," Dalby said. "It is a great compliment to our team and it shows we are making strides but the biggest thing we can do to show everybody is to win the national championship. I have been fortunate to get some notice for what I do in the middle of the field but the furthest I've gotten in the NCAAs is the Sweet 16 and I want to go further. We have strong senior leadership, on and off the field this year, and that has helped a ton. It is our obligation to keep everything together." The last time Notre Dame had two Hermann semifinalists was 2004, when Jack Stewart and Kevin Goldthwaite both were named. "I have reminded our team about that year," Clark said. "We got beat by Ohio State in the opening round so we certainly want to do better this time around."